Again
by Shadew
Summary: History is bound to repeat itself. Why are we here?
1. Prologue

_**Prologue:**_

_Utter darkness...._

The Black Tiger twists in mid-air, not caring what the consenquences are. He just needed out.

Well, the payment was landing on the smooth, slippery surface of the floor while skipping on it like a stone 'skip-jump's on top of water. Hard.

He stopped being tossed repeatedly on to the floor but the momentum forced him to keep on sliding. He rolls and got into a crouching position while still moving from the feeble attempt to stop.

He never noticed until now but something small evaporated on his damage causing a huge, paranormal shock of pain. Not just his injury. Every part of his body is telling him that he had enough. Incidentally, more than enough.

He parts his lips and gnashed his teeth in a attempt to stop his body's instinct of groaning and focus ahead. He needed his opponent to know that he wasn't out yet. But after that blow, his optic sensors aren't responding well.

"Heh..... Pain, huh?" The shadow snickered while grabbing his shoulder.... or what was left of it. Damaged circuitry sparked from the 'wound' as he desperately tried to fight back by shutting out his pain-sensory systems.

He knew, it was irrelevant to what was in stored for him.

He knew, he was the last.

He knew, he was lucky.

He knew, he was near death.

He knew, he was 'spared', by the enemy.

He knew, he hated it.

He knew, he was the last of his team.

He twisted his face and drew his weapons. It appeared in his hands in a flash as he concentrated his life's energies. Two guns, battered by age and chipped, almost in ruins. Or by something. It was held together by the wavering will of its master.

The Black Tiger tried to lift up his damaged arm but it failed to even move. It only flinched.

_Alright..... So I'm left with only my left.... _He thinks, then points the only functional arm towards the darkness with his gun while jumping backwards. As he predicted, the ground that was beneath him gave away to the ferocious impact of being smashed by an icy hammer-like object. The Tiger landed and somersaulted backwards. He stole a glance at the damage done.

"As expected...." He fawned looking at the hole that broke even metal that surpassed their armour. Gritting his teeth, he shot rapidly. Jumping sideways, he pushed his body off an object with his legs, while shooting and slidding towards the oblivion he knew that would end in this futile attempt. But what was it that held him together in the pitiful state he was in right now? He would just die anyways, left like that. He stopped his acceleration and shakily got up, supporting himself on his legs with his good hand. Panting, he spat out a reploid's life fluids as his internal liquids try to cover up the space it was given from it's high pressured, punctured veins in his body. His fluids.

Sure, he's just a reploid, but he's also mortal.

Unlike his adversary, growling as he thought.

So why was he fighting?

_So why am I fighting...? They're all dead...._

Bringing up his weapon, he successfully blocks a head of a comrade that had been torn to pieces in front of his eyes a few hours ago. It smashed on to the gun and landed with a *plop* sound on to the floor. It rolls to his right foot. A comrade that was his. A friend in his perspective. And also dead. Twisted gory features on the face presented the wanted reaction of a bloody cry from the victim, but was stuck in the head's troat which was brutally torn away by the creature that confronted his superior right now. The head's eyes were empty but it's twisted features shown the Black Tiger utter disbelief like what he was experiencing right now.

_How the hell did it get my team member's head? Wasn't it left six feet under this fucking place?_ His sensors snapped him back to reality as it detected multiple projectiles heading towards him. He would have, and could have deflected all of them if not for his crumbling weapon, and he did not have the accuracy of a God to shoot it all down, like the thing he was fighting right now, so he resorted to the only thing he could do...

_Fuck this!_ He dashed to the side and jumped at the same time to give him a boost upwards. Wrong move though, the bullets that were fired at him were homing missles. They followed him into the air. Then, he realized. He was completely wide-open, vulnerable and slow in the eyes of his opponent. He cursed, kicked his boosters into overdrive, making him dash in air then excuted a somersault with spin as he opened fire at the missles. That did the trick, but he would never imagined that the next trial he would face would be a flying steel wall his enemy ripped out of the room and threw at him. Only when he finished dancing with the missles, did he notice a flying son-of-a-bitch wall right in his face. He tried to move, but the velocity of the steel plate was so fast, the black tiger couldn't even flinch before he was sandwiched between walls. The force was strong enough to make an impression of the Black Tiger's outline and frames that protruded from the other side of the metal platings.

"This is just like a fucking movie from Indiana Jones or something...." He complained while pushing the thin metal sheet off his body. His sensors brought him back again, a second time when he felt a tremendous surge of electricity in the air being gathered in one point, and approaching him, quickly.

"Except that this one doesn't have a happy ending..." The Black Tiger perks up as he heard the taunt, _oh, now he wants to talk huh? Figures..._ He tried firing the boosters again to dodge the strike he anticipated but got rejected by his own systems.

_Booster systems in statis for cooldown.... __Calculated__ time left before ready to use: 15 minutes. _The Tiger swore and tried to get out of the wall in vain but then, realization dawned upon the unlucky warrior. How could he run from lightning?

"FUCK THIS!" The Black Tiger defensively brought up both hands creating a self-defensive 'barrier' that compromises of two hands pathetically knit together to form an 'X'.

Somehow, he figured that this wouldn't be one of those happy endings from the missions he'd usually received. _How'd I get into this...?_

_Utter darkness.... Shrouds everyone...._

_Impossible to hide._

_Impossible to run._

_Then what?_


	2. Who we are, we are

A/N: Sorry for late updates, kinda lazy so they'll likely be slow. This is my first story so please R&R...

* * *

**Chapter 1: Who we are, we are.**

_All stories have two great truths._

_Firstly, they all have a beginning which is more or less likely the same._

_And secondly, they all have an ending._

He stops whatever he was doing. Shaking his head, he tries to contain the sudden surprise that tackled him. It was as if he was asleep for a long time, reluctantly fading, in and out of the conscious world for the entire time. He finally then, drowsily and slowly dragged himself out of the pure darkness he saw. He breathed in, then out. Since when did he last tasted the sweet air that his lungs missed so much in a single gulp? Instead of walking, the man stumbled to the bathroom and splashed some water onto his face. He then looked up. He couldn't see his hand, he looked downwards. His body. And his legs. Gone. Somehow, part of him and surprisingly, he himself knew that it was natural and prevented him from having even a small amount of panic or adrenaline from pumping into his head that would have caused a mental breakdown. He took a good look at his face. Brown eyes, black, rumpled hair with a white streak losely hanging to the left of his face and the rest of it looked normal, in his book. But since when did he had this face? Wait, did he have a face? Why couldn't he remember?

An alarm clock rings and fades. Noise of activity stirred and a distinct voice infiltrated his senses.

"S......ge......" The man hears a voice that breaks the cloud of his torment, questions and confusion, though only a little....

"Sa....e......." _Who....? _The man decided to ignore the cloud and answer to the call of reality that reached out to him. He awoke from his dream with a startle.

"SAGE!"

"GAH!" The man in question falls back from his chair that toppled over him as he struggled. Sage landed on the floor with a thud.

"Yoohoo! Are you there?" Sage took a look around first and only thing he saw and could see were the tiled floors colored peach white with signs of wear, of being throd on. Looking upwards, he saw reploid waiters, holding trays of grub that made it's way around the room that was nicely decorated in blue. Round tables with people sitting on even rounder chairs that resembled that of a stool filled the atmosphere. A ceremic counter with automated voice machines that took your order and table number. Fluorescent lightings and the sound of chatting accompanied with the greasy smell of overcooked french fries and greasy burgers made it's way in to his systems.

"Wha-? How?" Sage dumbly stuttered with a blank look plastered on his face.

A boy by the age of sixteen with green, straight hair that closely resembled porcupine prickles, sky blue eyes, a nonplused expression, loose army shirt and jeans closed into Sage's face.

"Hello, sleepy head! Welcome back to the world of the living!" Sage stood up on this.

"I've been..... dead?" The chatting stopped and everyone turned to look at the two standing. The same boy grabbed Sage and whispered furiously.

"Geez! That was a joke you idiot!" The hungry customers in the shop heard the loud 'whisper' and continued on.

"Oh... nevermind then." Sage himself picked up the chair along with a brown, tattered cloak on the backrest of the chair that he assumed his then sat down. He looked at what he was previously doing. A cup of coffee and some bread were laid on the table. He notices another girl sitting opposite of him.

"Really, brother, it's things like these that make you troublesome."

"Hahaha.... Sorry, sorry........." He takes his seat while the girl turns her attention to Sage. She was the same age as the boy and both of them were considered as twins. She donned a proper military attire and seemed to have already dug into the plate of hamburger and fries that faced her a moment ago. Her hair was fiery red which was let straight down with a placid expression plastered on her face that didn't match her azure eyes.

"Master Sage..." _Wait, what?_ Sage shut his eyes and tried to clear his head. He then replied to her.

"Yes, Faith?" She shifts her attention to her brother and then back to him.

"What happened?" She asks.

"I just blacked out for a moment." Sage replied calmly.

"I knew you had malnutrition! You have the body of a seventeen after all. Waiter! Please get me a----" She jokes but as 'usual', Sage takes things too seriously.

"No, I'm not! Put a cork in it Faith! You know very well I hate junk food!"

"Unlike sis over here..." The boy retorted silently while fingering a fish stick into his gaping mouth before muching on it.

"You too Raven!" Sage turns, glaring at him. He then takes a gulp of the black, bitter liquid that remained in his cup. Enjoying the fragrance, he calmed down.

"Aww man...." Raven knew what Sage was about to do to him and his sister if this kept up, he was already thankful he calmed down, even just for a little bit. Sighing, he swore silently to himself to shut up for awhile, maybe for a minute ir two just to cool Sage's temper down a little.

_Sage's a little edgy today... what's up by the way? _He pondered as his sister caught a glance of his dilemma.

As if reading his mind, Faith shot him a 'I Don't Know Either' glance. Usually, Sage was calm, cool, collected, with lightning quick reflexes and able to think of shit faster than anyone they've ever knew, he succeeds in everything he does and doesn't consider anybody as a rival.

Sage peered down at his attire, he was clad in a black suit usually used in convert military operations that provides camouflage, protection and comfort. His belt, or utility belt had double-edged knives, smoke bombs in a small bag hung on the right, shurikens strung together and tied under the bag on the left, rubber gloves with white, thin wiring lines that looked like decoration hooked up to the wrist of the glove tucked in to the right side of his belt, strong metal cable wires in launchable pulleys in the middle that took him years to master and use in combat. Preferably, he'd rather sit down with a good book in one hand and an apple in the other.

After the meal, Sage got up, took up his cloak in one hand and paid the bill at the counter. The twins got up themselves and grabbed their weapons. Raven snatched up a sheathed great sword and Faith picked up a rapier. The automated machine thanked Sage for his patronage as the three stepped out of the warm, lively restaurant into the world of death and decay.

Inhaling the cool, morning air of spring, the twins threw on their offical military assigned trench coats while Sage wore his trademark tattered cloak. The effects were immediate as Sage released some of his tension by being exposed to the enviroment. This city is called Evans, since war wasn't knocking on their doors, being one of the major cities, there were only a few maverick terrorist bombings that occassionally happen once in awhile. Vegetation was abundant in the city for the fear of pollution, especially when this city is so called city of peace as Sage refers it to.

An explosion rang throughout the city.

So much for peace and harmony.

The three saw an incredibly tall building explode on the right side of it's majestic blocks. Fire explodes outwards as blocks of patched up earth flew out of it's original place.

Sage ignored it and started walking naturally but the other two behind were 'fidgety'. They caught up to him and tried to ignore the constant, violent sounds of the corresponding explosions that were set off. The three walked into the chaotic city that seem to explode into flames in every direction they glance at.

Pedestrians screamed out for help. In many directions. Raven and Faith can't help but to answer their call and consulted Sage. They knew, he hated to help or be helped. He hated many things and liked very few. It was actually a miracle that he took on students, at all, since one of the things he hated were humans, even though he's one of them himself.

But this level of chaos to Sage, was a walk in a park. To the other two, this was a stroll in hell.

".... Sage......" Faith started. The latter continued walking without looking back.

"Hmm?" He mumbles while gaily walking with his hands at his back striding forward in a nonchalant way with a neutral expression on his face.

"Can we..... help?" Raven tries to convey the message across to the care-free devil. The effect was immediate. He instantly stopped his progression through the city and inhaled.

He breathed in and smelt, a city full of smoke and dust.

He glanced to the right, and witnessed flames that licked and burnt everything, everywhere.

He felt the red lights painting the atmosphere while dancing on his skin.

His ears perked up and heard, cries of pain, horror and help came ringing in his ears at every corner.

He sees it. The destruction. The pain. The oppression of drowning depression.

He bent his lips breaking his plain facial expression. And it broke....

Into a horrifying smile.

"Beautiful isn't it?" He turns around laughing maniacally and madly while swinging his arms in a playful spin, as if dancing around in his own backyard. What terrified his disciples the most was his facial expression. It completely turned into that of a terrifying devil. Death was the centerpiece of his pupils, it danced as if to respond to the flames. His mouth curved upwards even more, to take the form of a thin, sharp smile of a blood lusty monster.

It was an exact opposite of the scenery of a flower field with a carefree girl frolicking, to and fro dancing with the 'sheep'. It was the impersonation of the Grim Reaper himself, with his scythe waving in a pit of black-blue fire that seemed to emit a treacherous aura together with the lost souls that engulfed the blade of the scythe that shone silver, like the moon.

Anybody would be afraid. His companions had been afraid of it before, but had already adapated to it. They've seen him admire destruction like this too many times already.

Too many times.

They impatiently waited for him to calm down as he admired the surroundings with his unique sense of beauty like a kid on Chrismas Eve. They also knew anyone disturbing him during this time is suicide. For everyone. And probably everything. After a few minutes of adrenaline and ecstasy running through Sage's body, he caught himself, then halted his insanity.

"....erhm..... W-well, both of you.... want to help?" Raven and Faith nodded their heads in response.

"Whatever.... save, kill, die, as if I care. Freeloaders like you shouldn't ask me about your lives." To the two, this was like: 'Hey, go for it, knock yourself out, break a leg'. They grinned and started to sprint towards the main cause of the breakout, the tallest building in the city, known as Needle Point. Sage sighs as he retires, sitting on an outdoor chair in a nearby snack shop.

"Really.... kids......" He grins while complaining and shutting his eyes as chaos called out ot him from all corners

* * *

Raven jumps over a burning, over flipped car while swinging his thick great sword sideways slicing an unfortunate peon that perched itself on the car into a messy half.

His weapon was around one and a half of his size and around twice his weight. He would have been squished like a bug if not for the training he underwent to just carry one of these. It was not one of the regular weapons used during this era though. A silver blade protruded from a improper hilt. It was really improper, no hand guard, no hilt, just some thick metal with some white cloth bound on to the end of the grip in countless wrappings with about twenty metres of it laid uncoiled, on the ground. Usually, a majestic sword like that would have been slow and needs two hands to weild, but Raven swung it just as if a normal man swings a knife.

He grins and jumps down as his twin sister, Faith, came sprinting around the flaming car with a rapier in her right hand. She smashed a peon on the face with the tip of the rapier with force that could break steel. She made a huge hole in in the peon's head.

" 'Youdantotsu.' "

Turning to another one that started to aim for her on a roof, she unleashed a sharp shockwave that sailed right through the peon before exploding on a building. In a second, the upper torso of the peon fell off cleanly before it's body parts went ballastic and made a loud noise. That noise, of course being one of an explosion.

" 'Zaneidan.' "

".... Sector clear." Her rapier flashed to a halt as it faced downwards signaling her words. It was, like her brother's, not the weapon normally used during this age. A thin, sharp blade protruded from the hand guard decorated in ornamental gold with leather grip.

"... Remind me to never make you angry, sis." Her brother awes at the skills she pulled off. She grinned as a reply as if to say, 'maybe, maybe not'. Raven shook his head while imitating her smile watching her take off towards the opposite direction. He burst out laughing as his red-faced sister bounded back toward the other way.

"Still have that bad sense of direction I see, c'mon, let's go, follow me." Raven dashed towards Needle Point with his sister hot on his heels. Upon arrival, the two caught a glimpse of officers escorting the wary and exhausted civilians out of the building. Raven approached the lieutenant in charge and whipped out his offical's badge signaling his membership of being in the special operation's force, in other words, 'SOF'.

"What's going on here lietenant?"

"It's those blasted mavericks again sir. This time, they've hit the center point of the city, if this keeps up, the entire city would be taken over." As the officer concludes while keeping his temper in check when up dealing against his younger superiors, the building bursts into flames. This time, from top to bottom.

"Holy mother of --- What the fucking hell happened? I want backup, on the double and get those freakin', lazy firemen here now!" The lietenant lost his cool as the last strand of his nerve snapped and kept on barking more commands to nearby officers and his radio.

The victims of the brutal and verbal beatings, both from the end of the radio and nearby stumbled, on one another to create even more chaos and confusion as they try to comply with their tormentor's wishes. The lietenant slapped his face and drags his hand downwards. Faith rolled her eyes watching the sitcom unravel in front of her. Raven sighed and started again with the pissed off officer.

"We'll be going in then." Raven and his sister started to run into the building while the disbelieving lietenant tried to untangle the 'man-made' knots that resembled a ball.

"Wha-? I can't allo- SIR! MA'AM!" The bewildered lietenant tries to stop the twins from entering the building, but it was already too late. They were already inside.

"Man it's hot in here.... Faith, any ideas where might the source be?" Raven turns to his twin as the falling debris unintentionally targeted them. It was all a blur as Raven drew his fist upwards, punching the burning cemented floor and reduced it to a pile of flying rocks that dispersed around them. His sister looked on, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do.

She turns on an earpiece connected to her left eye that served as a visor and began calculating. Its screen was green and had white, small digits flying all over it which Faith had no problem reading.

Flinching, she stops.

"Brother..." She spoke after pausing for a minute.

"Yeah, I know. You keep searching." Raven took up his blade and walked a few steps in front of his sister and took on a stance. He grabbed his two-hander greatsword properly this time. With two of his hands.

A multitude of mavericks approached.

"Hope you're just all of them, because I wanna get this party done and over with!" He grins and jumps.

* * *

Raven hacked the last of the lifeless drone reploid into half horizontally on the chest.

Heaving a sigh, he took a look at the mess, the mess he alone had created. Five reploids were 'skish-kebabed' and pinned to the wall with one of the energy lances they weild, around three fell to the blasts of their own weapon which was plasma shots that were oh-so-kindly reflected back by Raven. One was impaled on the chest on a sharp, crude pipe that protruded from the ground as if planted there for that purpose, the body hung there, limp, with all the limbs of the reploid hanging and face downwards as if fatigued. More uncountable reploids were brutally smashed and torn to pieces by his own free hand. Heads, abdoments, limbs, all scattered with reploid fluids which painted the wall crimson bright red.

_Sage would appreciate the handiwork... _Raven thought and then faced his sister that was standing still for the entire ten minutes of the battle.

"So? Any ideas?" He plainly asked.

"Follow me...." She dashed up the stairways that led towards the second floor. Not much of the stairs were left through the erosion of the building which left it in ruins. After another few minutes of moving through the various winding, narrow and flame-lit corridors while smashing more drones and debris that stood in the way, Faith entered an empty, dark room that had a sign above it that read: 'Storeroom'. She ran to the other end of the room that was surrounded by the shadows of just another shelf before flicking a hidden switch.

A low and distinct groaning noise of unoiled gears working way further away, around several tens of floors above. Raven took note of the details by shutting his eyes and letting his sense of hearing determine the exact coordinates. He grins.

"Floor forty-seven, second room to the left right?" His sister nods before copying his grin, signaling that a mischievous idea popped up in her head.

"Hey... Wanna race?" She turns to Raven. He smiles in return.

"Fine, but no cyber-traveling, teleporting.... and definitely no skills!" By hearing her brother's last word, she sulked.

"Awww... fine...." Faith reluctantly accepts the conditions. Faith got a head start by twisting around and sprinting towards the staircase.

"No fair!" He yells, frustrated.

"Oh, really? You never said anything about that...." Raven growls in response before starting. He turns his body towards the wall and kicked.

The debris from the impact flew down on to some unsuspecting maverick drones. He spys the thing he was looking for. A galleon drone hovered in thre air and tried to lift up its hands to form a buster. It was a failed attempt as Raven's feet were on its face and chest before it had time to react. He then faced the building and launched himself onto it. The force from the starting jump made it explode as Raven smashed his right fist into the wall making a hole then grabbed it. Using it was support, he readied himself by perching his feet onto the verticle concrete. He tested it by giving it a few harsh kicks. _Good, it's stable..._ Raven thought as he spied another flying galleon.

Faith was having a less tough time running up the stairs with constant speed, smashing, slashing, hacking galleons and debris while jumping over endless gaps. Reaching the thirtieth floor, she spots a group of civilians hiding by huddling together from the galleons through her visor. Thinking on her feet, she smashes an unsuspecting maverick's head off. It rolled onto the feet of another galleon on patrol. It stares down, then to the body of it's now, headless comrade. The body slumped over to the patrolman and it catches it's fallen comrade's corpse. It turned it's head to the right and pulled out it's buster in one quick, swift motion while propping the fallen's body on his left arm. Nothing was there. He backed up slowly while scanning left and right into an empty room and shut the door.

"Peek-a-boo.... I see you...." The remaining galleon felt something sharp on his back. It pierced through it's armour, machinery, organs and came out the otherside. It stared down on the rapier's tip that was covered in it's blood. His blood. His lifeblood. His control chip cried and begged for mercy, but no sound could escape from the rigid body of the droid. It was not built to talk, after all.

With that being of the last of the mavericks on that particular floor, Faith called in headquarters for an emergency teleport. Her request was granted as soon as it arrived and the crowd left after expressing their gratitude. She ignores it, seeing her brother leap rapidly on the walls outside. She knew it was him because his fists smashed the though the window and grabbed the ledge of it. Raven sensed a presence in the room of the window he smashed and looked in.

To only stare back at his dearest sister that was racing him.

"SHIT!" They both yelled, ignored the confused civilians and returned to their respective racing techniques.

* * *

A few minutes later, Faith was the first one to arrive to the designated spot. Since Raven lost, he would have to treat her to a soda later, it was the tradition of the loser of the bet between the two every time. But, she only managed to get to the forty-seventh floor by dumb luck alone, it was actually because her brother was actually stupid enough to break his rapid-jumping chain and fell. Her eye twitched with amusement as she reminisced the chain of events that occurred.

_The twins had been in par with each other until the fortieth floor. The two were about to move on to the next floor when Raven was perched onto a flying galleon. He jumped and only managed to leap halfway because a bird got in his way. It smashed into his face, creating a mouthful of feathers. Faith rushed to the window and pulled it open. All she could hear were cursings as he fell._

"_DAMN VULTURES!" _

Grinning, her mind returned to reality and she sat down waiting for her brother. While waiting, she decided to do some recon and snooped around. Using the fact that the enemy doesn't know that she's there, Faith peered into the targeted room. Openning the door a little, she saw a heavily clad armour type reploid that looked like an ancient samurai. The only thing she knew next was a white streak of light that missed her by an inch.....

...and the wall, together with the door were cut to pieces and their fragments slowly reduced to ash.

"What the-!" Faith backed away.

"Heh..." The samurai brandished his blue, lazer energy-based katana from it's sheath and pointed it towards Faith.

"Weren't there two of you? What happened to that other kid?" The samurai gazed at Faith dangerously, his face hidden behind a mask, only a pair of eyes showed signs of life in the big , moving armour.

"...." Faith unsheathed her own weapon, her rapier radiated dangerously as if crying out for blood.

"The silent type huh? Whatever your intentions are, leave now or die by my hand." He turns away uninterestedly after one glance of the thin metal foil.

Faith launched herself at the enemy. With or without her brother, the one thing they've learned while spending their time with the army is that they'd have to eliminate all threats. She knew that discussing the opponent's surrender wasn't an option, due to the increase of threats and the unlikelihood that they would peacefully surrender.

Pulling her rapier upwards, the samurai reploid stops the blade by lifting his hand which weilded the katana. Blade met with blade.

"Oh? You refuse to leave? Well then..." He pushes Faith off with excessive force that would crush a truck into the size of a tin can. She purposely took the recoil from the nudge and flew backwards. She lands in the corner of the room's ceiling and pushed herself at her opponent clashing her rapier on his weapon again, this time, at a different angle. He knocked her away again. Faith slid with her two feet on the slippery ground creating dust clouds.

Inside the metallic armour, the samurai smiles wickedly.

"......BRING IT ON!" He triuphantly yells the battle cry and ran towards her opponent.


End file.
